Power Play
by Science-Fantasy93
Summary: As the captain of the girls' hockey team, Katie is used to dealing with James, the captain of the boys' team. But when a bet is made to see who has the better team, she and James find themselves locked in an explosive power struggle. With hot tub parties, showdowns on the rink, and intense attraction, there may be more than just a bet at stake...
1. Preface

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Big Time Rush or anything recognizable in this chapter or story._**

**_Super Long Author's Notes: Congratulations! If you guys have made it this far, then you get a prize - AKA a super long A/N and the preface to a new story. I was originally planning on waiting a couple more weeks before posting this, but this story started nagging at me this afternoon, begging to be put up, so here it is - the preface. It's just a taste of the story, but hopefully the next chapter will be up later in the week :) Also, I don't know a lot about hockey, so I've been slowly learning as I go. If I get anything wrong, please feel free to correct me so that I can fix the mistake._**

**_This story came into existence in January, during the week when it was freezing everywhere in the U.S. I don't live in a particularly cold climate, but it dropped down into the twenties and teens, and for the area I live in, that's pretty freaking cold. So of course, I really wanted to do a high school story set in winter in Minnesota. This story may seem a little bit like "Break the Ice", but I promise this story is extremely different. The main similarities in this is that there's hockey, they're in high school, James has a younger brother named Shane, and Kendall and Katie are twins. But that's where the similarities end. This is a battle-of-the-sexes type story, there's a lot more hockey involved, there's a ton of OCs in this (which I know a lot of people don't like, but unfortunately it was necessary to bring them in since I needed to fill up two different hockey teams) and it's one of those stories that would probably never happen in a million years, but hey, that's what makes it so much fun!_**

**_I want to mention that some of you might be a little...offended...by some of the stuff that goes on in here. Some of the stuff that happens, or some of the character's attitudes that you'll encounter in this story, may come off as sexist, and I'm sorry for that. But it's necessary to the story, and I'm not trying to prove a point or make a statement. I'm just simply writing a story that's been wanting to get out for awhile._**

**_One last thing. This story is Jatieluv's very belated birthday present. I promised her a oneshot for her birthday back in early February, only I got stuck. She suggested I do a multi chapter story for her, and I had a little bit of this written, so I sent her what I had and, though she was a little skeptical at first, she decided she wanted it to be her birthday present. So I'm dedicating this to her because she's an amazing friend and she wrote me the cutest oneshot for my birthday. So if you guys have the time, go check her out. Happy birthday, Niki!_**

**_Also, I'm dedicating this to Dana2184 who read a little bit of this as well and liked it. She just posted a new story (well, two of them, but the second one hasn't come up, so I think FFN's being a brat again), so if you get the chance, check it out as well :)_**

**_I think that's about it :)_**

**_Enjoy the preface!_**

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**Preface**

**Katie's POV**

I was nervous.

It wasn't something I particularly liked to admit, especially when we were about to face _them_. But the honest truth was that I was nervous, not to mention beyond anxious. My heart was beating so loudly I was pretty sure the boys could hear it in their locker room, all the way on the other side of the rink.

My palms were sweating like a pig – do pigs even sweat? Do they even have the right glands? – and my breath was coming out in short gasps. It wasn't exactly the best way to prep myself for a game, but I couldn't help it. So much rode on this. My reputation. The reputation of the girls' in the school. The possibility of kicking the boys' asses and reminding them that just because they were bigger and stronger didn't mean they were better than us.

This had all started because of a stupid argument and an even stupider bet, and it had completely blown up in everyone's face. And now I was about to go out there and face the boys in battle. I was going to have to face James, and I wasn't sure I could do that, not after last night. At least not on the rink. That wasn't the time or place to look him in the eye and say "we need to figure this thing out, because it's driving us both crazy", not when we were about to be locked in a fight to death.

Well, okay, not literally. But sometimes hockey felt like a fight to the death, especially when the boys were involved. And could you really blame me for this? I mean, seriously. Women had fought for thousands of years for equal rights, yet when it came to sports, to this town, to the high school hockey teams, girls came in second – always. Over the past few months I had dealt with sneers and whispers and snickers directed my way every time I walked down the school hall, but it had been worth it. Or, at least, it would be worth it if we beat the boys. But if we lost, even if it was by the barest minimum we would never be able to live it down.

Because it was one thing for boys to be beaten by girls. They could just say "we went easy on them" or "we let them win". But if girls lost to boys, they were immediately pushed to the side, ostracized, made fun of, treated like – well, like girls.

That didn't stop a million and one thoughts from flying through my mind, the most prominent of which was, _I just turned seventeen last month! I'm too young to die! Eeeeep!_

Yeah, I was a bad ass, all right. The _eeeeep_ at the end really spoke for my toughness. But come on, let's face it. Most of the guys were at least 5'8 and muscular. Even Carlos Garcia, who was only 5'6, was all hard muscle and he was built solid. I was barely five feet and that was when I was feeling particularly tall. I was athletic, but I sure as hell didn't have a solid build.

I was so screwed.

I sighed as I finished lacing up my skates and reached for my helmet and visor, glancing around the girls' locker room as I did so. I could see Jo Taylor pacing up and down the aisle of lockers, her long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, giving her an almost angelic look.

Camille Roberts was sitting on one of the benches with her legs pulled up into the criss-cross-apple-sauce position, feet actually resting on her ankles a la yoga style. Stephanie King was listening to her iPod a few feet away from me, and I could hear the heavy thrum of an electric guitar and constant boom of a drum.

The other girls – Mandy, Brittany, Natalie, Kristen, Alexis, and Allison – were doing similar preparation routines. I could see Mandy, the tallest girl on the team, stretching to loosen up. Allison was playing a game on her phone and muttering "be the puck. I'm the puck. Be the puck." Natalie and Alexis were chatting about a couple of guys in one of their classes, but their voices were more high-pitched than normal, their laughter a little too shrill, and I knew they were just as anxious as I was. And Kristen and Brittany were plugged into their iPods like Stephanie, shoulders hunched, fingers laced, looking so tense I doubted even the best masseuse could have unwound them at that moment.

I sighed, reaching behind my head to tighten my ponytail before grabbing my water bottle, taking a long gulp and capping it again. I needed to get myself together. I was the captain of this team and it was my job to lead them to victory. I wasn't the oldest on the team and I probably wasn't even the most experienced hockey player in the locker room, but I was the one who had been voted in as team captain, the same way James had been for the boys' team. And that in itself didn't help any. We were both team captains, constantly facing off with each other, and yet I honestly thought something might actually go right with us? Was I fucking nuts?

"Almost ready?" I called to the girls as I slapped my helmet on my head and adjusted it, fastening the strap.

"Yeah," Jo answered, readying her own helmet. "Let's kick their asses."

I could tell by the determined set of her jaw that she was serious. She wasn't going to let feelings for my brother get in the way of winning, of putting the boys in their place.

"Hear, hear," Allison cheered, putting her phone away. "Let's do this thing."

Melanie Carter, our hockey coach, walked into the locker room to give us a last minute pep talk. It was obvious that she was every bit as antsy as we were, shuffling from foot to foot and tugging at an earring as she spoke about how it wasn't about winning or losing, but that it was how we played the game. "But for heaven's sake, please just beat them!" she finished off, deviating just a tiny bit from the usual end for her pep talks. But then again, this wasn't a normal game and we all knew it. "Oh, and one more thing," she added as we filed towards the door. "The entire town stopped by to watch. Even James' dad and brother made it down here."

Somehow that didn't surprise me.

I gestured the others forward and I yanked open the door. We filed through the hall and a moment later we burst out onto the ice to roaring applause and I felt my anxiety lift as I spotted my family and my best friend. They supported us. They wanted us to win. And I would be damned if we weren't going to walk away with the game.

But then the boys' appeared, skating furiously on the ice, and my breath caught slightly as I saw James. His visor wasn't down yet, and even from where I was standing across the rink I could see his hazel eyes, darker than normal. Our gazes locked and a wave of heat crashed over my body. My adrenaline pumped up, and I flashed back to the night before.

Without a second thought, I broke our eye lock and slammed my visor down, just as the whistle blew.

Time to kick some ass.

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_***Peeks out through fingers* So...what'd you guys think? Did you like it? Love it? Hate it? Enjoy it? Please review and let me know what you think so far! And thank you for taking the time to check out my new story :)**_


	2. 1 If You're Going to Do an Expose

_**Disclaimer: Own Big Time Rush? Umm...nope. I'm still waiting to hear back from my lawyer.**_

_**Guet: Thank you so much :) I'm so happy you enjoyed it! Unfortunately, you're not going to be able to see how the game goes for awhile. I'll explain in the author's note. Thank you, you're so sweet :) And thank you for taking the time to read and review, I really appreciate it!**_

_**Thank you to everyone who has already read, followed, favorited, and reviewed this story! I was blown away by your responses to the preface and it made me want to get the first chapter up as quickly as possible :) So thank you!**_

_**A/N: I have a new rule: I can't post new multi-chapter stories when I'm in a hurry. When I posted the preface, I was in a rush because I had to get ready for work, and I forgot to mention something super important that might've saved some confusion. I know that with a lot of prefaces and prologues, they basically act as the very beginning of the story. The preface for "Power Play" isn't like that. Basically, it's the beginning of the climax, kind of a sneak peek at what's going to happen, if you will. The majority of the story will be spent building it's way up to that point. That being said, there's going to be a lot of stuff going on before we reach that point. This first few chapters might seem a bit slow, but the story's pace will pick up pretty quickly.**_

_**I also want to mention again that there will most likely be opinions and characters who you guys don't agree with, due to the subject matter. I mean, it's a battle of the sexes, so of course there's going to be views that not everyone likes. That being said, there will be character development, so opinions may change as the story goes on.**_

_**One more thing: I told a couple of people that I was planning on updating yesterday, and that clearly didn't happen. Things didn't exactly work out in favor of updating, and I'm sorry that you guys had to wait an extra day. Anyway, I think that's about it :)**_

_**Enjoy the chapter :)**_

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**Chapter One – If You're Going to Do An Expose…**

**Katie's POV**

I sighed in boredom as I sat in the classroom the high school used as their newspaper's headquarters. I completely blamed my mom for my current state of monotony. If she hadn't insisted that I get involved in an extracurricular program outside of ice hockey, I wouldn't even be here. But oh no, colleges just love variety and the more extracurriculars the better, so hey, why don't you sign up for the school newspaper?

That had been about how my conversation with my mom had gone at the beginning of the year when she had come up with the bright idea that hockey just wasn't enough to plump up a college application. As she had pointed out, I was in my junior year of high school and I needed to start thinking about getting into a good college, preferably one here in Minnesota so that we wouldn't have to deal with any out-of-state tuition fees, and so that I could come home on the weekends.

I had a feeling she was already dealing with empty nest syndrome.

And it was just going to get worse for her. Kendall and I were going to be heading off to college at the same time, and we didn't have any younger siblings. And that was why she should have never had twins. Totally her fault.

I draped one leg over the other as I tapped my pen against my notebook. It was the first day back at school after winter break, and the newspaper's first order of business for the new semester was assigning topics to their writers. So far we had distributed the lunch menu – it had gone to a poor little freshman who was even shorter than me – and the "politics", which basically just meant sitting in on the occasional school government meetings and then writing about how the treasurer couldn't stop the student body president from going over the school's budget. And everyone knew it had happened – those fancy-schmancy vending machines didn't just magically appear, and the automatic flushing toilets and weird Asian style heaters probably weren't zapped up by a fairy. And I may have sucked at math, but even I knew that there was no way in hell the school treasury had the money for all three things, and that was just assuming only the first floor girls' restroom had been outfitted with those amenities.

I mean, seriously. If you're going to spend money on a restroom, the least you could do is make sure music is playing over speakers and maybe get an air freshener or too. Ooh, and couches to rest on while you're waiting for one of the stalls to open up. That was what we needed. Not toilets that decided to flush themselves just because you had shifted a little.

What a freaking waste of money.

"Okay, next order of business," the head of the newspaper, Missy Carlyle, spoke up. "Who's going to cover the sporting events?"

"Katie should do that," our resident nerd/jackass, Thomas Wainwright, replied. "Since she already plays girls' hockey."

Every guy in the room snickered in unison at the phrase 'girls' hockey', and I rolled my eyes. The boys at this school were so immature. Oh, wait, it was high school – of course they were immature. What else could you expect from a bunch of teenage boys who thought snapping a bra strap counted as quality entertainment?

"I'm the _captain_ of the girls' hockey team," I gritted out, my fingers clenching a little more tightly around my pen. More snickering followed my statement and I sucked in a breath, puffing my cheeks out so that I looked like a chipmunk, before releasing it with a sharp _whoosh_. Like I needed this crap on the first day back at school.

Nate Anderson smirked at me. "They couldn't have found someone…ya know…a little taller?" He held his hand up to show his point and I got to my feet, walking over to him. I grabbed his hand and pinched the web between his thumb and index finger.

He yelped. "Ow! Mrs. Carrison, Katie's hurting me!"

Mrs. Carrison, the newspaper supervisor, blinked over at us. She was pregnant with her first child, who was due in late April, and she had spent most of the meeting so far pouring over baby clothes catalogs and mothering magazines. "Oh. Well, tell her to stop."

Kristen, one of the girls on the hockey team, leaned forward with a wicked grin. "Yeah, Nate. A big strong man like you should be able to deal with someone who's _so tiny_. What's the matter? Kat got your tongue?"

It was a running joke through pretty much the entire town. My full name is Katherine Claire Knight, and growing up my brother and fathered would call me Kat a lot. Even though I usually went by Katie, and Kat was reserved more as a nickname, it somehow stuck, and by the time I reached sixth grade a lot of people – namely the boys and a couple of bitchy girls – thought it would be hilarious to come up with as many Kat puns as they possibly could. Now, in eleventh grade I pretty much embraced it, since it was normally used by my friends and family. My best friend, Kyle Margolis, took it one step farther – he called me Kitty-Kat when he wanted to annoy me.

Nate glared at Kristen, before turning back to me. Since he was starting to look slightly murderous, I let go of him and went back to my chair, sitting down neatly. "I think I made my point," I said coolly, crossing my legs once more.

"Yeah, you're violent," Nate retorted, rubbing his hand.

"Aww, did I hurt the big tough guy?" I covered my mouth with my fingers, pouting sadly.

Alex Gregory rolled his eyes. "Okay, let's move on and get back to the matter at hand. Who's going to cover the sports' events?"

"Well, if I'm doing it, then I'm going to need someone else to do it as well," I said. "Because like the nerd jackass said, I'm on the girls' hockey team so I can't write about that."

"What? You don't want to write about how the girls' team gets crushed?" Thomas spoke up.

Why wasn't it legal to strangle people? Aren't there special cases like this where it's not considered immoral? People would probably thank me. I might even get a thank you card and a basket of muffins for my contribution to humanity.

"We don't get crushed," Kristen responded calmly, moving her pen against her own notebook page. I could see her writing "_JERK_!" and "_WE NEED DUCT TAPE_!" in capital bubble letters. She underlined the part about duct tape and I smirked. That was my girl. She always had my back. "We crush the opposing team."

"Then how come we never hear about that?" Nate wanted to know it. Someone else to strangle.

"Because we're not the boys' hockey team, so no one gives a crap," I told him. "Now, if we suddenly grew dicks and shot up a few inches, people might actually care."

Mrs. Carrison glanced up from the _Baby and Me_ magazine she was looking at, but couldn't seem to register anything about the conversation.

Nate shrugged. "They must have not been very crushing defeats."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. Anyway, is anyone else going to handle the sports' section with me? I mean, we do have more than a couple of sports," I pointed out. "Besides hockey, we have football, soccer, wrestling, and basketball."

"But soccer season doesn't start until spring," Thomas said in his most obnoxious voice. "And football season ended in December. So that just leaves hockey, wrestling, and basketball for the time being."

"And soccer. Because we're going to have these positions for the rest of the semester," I reminded him, jabbing my pen in his direction. "You want to cover the school sports with me? You can do all the girls' teams," I added sweetly.

"I would _love_ to do the girls' teams."

The boys all smirked and high-fived each other, and I realized the innuendo. Damn it! Why did it always have to be about sex with teenage boys? Couldn't they just have a regular conversation once in awhile without having to bring their other head into the mix?

"Well, you're not doing the girls' hockey team," Kristen said mildly, still scribbling insults in her notebook. "Because if you even try, we'll beat you so hard with our sticks you won't be able to have children. Kay? Kay."

I glanced over at the poor freshman girl. She had to be completely freaked out by this conversation. But instead of staring at us with bug eyes, her elbows were resting on her knees, her chin cradled in her hands as she watched the show. Then again, she had been in high school for the past few months. She was probably used to the threats and innuendos that came with being around teenagers, namely boys ranging between the ages of fourteen and eighteen. Dangerous ages. Very, very dangerous.

Thomas snapped his fingers like he was disappointed. "Oh, darn. How will I ever go on?"

"Okay, seriously, who's doing what with what?" I broke in. "We need to get this thing figured out, Kristen and I both have hockey practice in half an hour."

"Yeah, like the rest of us want to spend our afternoon bickering over who's covering the girls' sports teams," Thomas snorted.

"Okay," Missy let out a deep breath, clearly trying to figure out how the hell she was going to get the meeting back under control. "I say Katie covers the guys' sports teams. Or she and Kristen can both cover them. Katie, you can do hockey and soccer when it starts back up, and Kristen, you can do basketball and wrestling."

I groaned. "Do I have to cover the boys' hockey team?" I tried to stay as far away from the boys' hockey team as was humanly possible. Half of it had to do with the captain of the team. The other half had to do with the standing rivalry between the girls' and boys' teams. It just wasn't worth trying to deal with them most days.

Missy nodded. "Yes. That's my final decision. That work for you, Mrs. Carrison?" she added.

Mrs. Carrison's head jerked up from the catalog she was now paging through. "What? Oh, yes, of course, whatever you feel is best, Missy. By the way, do you guys think this nursery set is adorable?" She held up the catalog to show us a nursery decked out in a soft shade of blue with a white crib and a mobile of stars and a moon.

We quickly assured her that it was beyond adorable before Missy called us back to order. She continued to split up the different subjects, assigning Thomas to cover the girls' sports, before saying, "I want to spice up the paper a little this semester. And since sports and athletes are such a big part of this school's morale, I think we should do a special segment on them."

Kristen and I both grinned at each other. Boo yeah! We were getting a special segment done about us!

"I'm thinking since the boys' teams have so much riding on them, we should do in-depth exposés about their players," she continued on. "It would be good for school spirit and since it's our job to promote school spirit behind-the-scenes…"

"Um, yeah, that's great," I spoke up. "But what about the girls' teams?"

"School spirit doesn't ride so much on whether or not they win the games. There isn't a lot of interest with the female athletes," Missy told me.

"Uh, Missy? You're a girl. Are you seriously against this?"

"I want to make sure the paper is read," she responded hotly. "And as much as I don't like it, female athletes don't generate a lot of interest, at least not in this high school."

I opened my mouth to tell her that she was stupid, but then it sank in. She was right. And that was just something I was going to have to live with, just like her.

"Fine," I gritted out, the word sounding painfully forced. "We'll do it that way."

"Good. So, you and Kristen can do the exposés on the hockey and basketball teams."

"What about wrestling?" Kristen piped up. "And soccer?"

"Yeah, I suppose you should do one on wrestling, and Katie can do one on soccer."

"Okay. So, it's just for the boys' teams? There definitely isn't going to be one on the girls?"

Missy shrugged. "If we need a filler then yeah, we should do one on one of the girls' teams."

Clearly she hadn't grown up hearing about women's lib. And she had probably never heard the song "I Am Woman". But weren't there other girl power songs? Hadn't Jordin Sparks done a song like that? And what about Little Mix? And did she even hear the way Thomas and Nate had put down the girls' hockey teams? Now would be the time to make them do an article on the teams, the same way she was making Kristen and me do one on the boys'. If nothing else it would have shut them up for a couple of days.

By the disbelieving look on Kristen's face, it was obvious she agreed. But no one else in the school was going to be surprised. I didn't even know why we were shocked. This was completely normal behavior. But – oh God. I was going to have to do an exposé on the boys' hockey team. Someone shoot me now. James Diamond was never going to let me live this down, and Kendall was going to tease me about this mercilessly every time he got the chance.

I hated my life.

The meeting eventually ended and we all began packing up and getting to our feet, stretching out after sitting in the same chair for the past fifty minutes. I slung my messenger bag over my shoulder and waited while Kristen finished packing up. Her wavy blonde hair swung into her face and she was forced to push it back over her shoulder to keep it from blocking her sight.

I ignored the way Nate and Thomas were both swaggering towards the door. Nate wasn't a nerd by any means, but apparently he and Thomas had found something in common – they were both assholes. Alex rolled his eyes and hung back to talk to Kristen and me as the rest of the kids on the school paper walked out.

"Hey," he said quietly to us once Nate and Thomas had disappeared into the hall. "I do agree with you two. There should be an exposé on the girls' teams. I mean, it's only fair, right?"

I nodded. "Exactly. I don't get why Missy doesn't understand that."

"I think she does understand that, but she's more focused on making sure the paper is a huge hit. She's the first girl and the first junior to be the head of the school paper," he reminded me. "And she's determined not to let her personal feelings get in the way of putting out a successful newspaper."

"If I wasn't writing for the paper, I wouldn't read it after this," I told him. "And I might just tell everyone I know not to bother picking it up – it's sexist and male-oriented."

"Missy's family is also pretty traditional," Kristen put in. "They don't care that this is the twenty-first century. Her mom stays at home and keeps house and cooks while her dad goes to work every day. And they live with her super traditional grandparents, which is probably why her parents are so traditional in the first place. They have her grandparents influencing them."

"Whatever. Aren't you mad about this?" I asked Kristen.

"Try fighting pissed. But we can't do anything about it. It's up to Missy and Mrs. Carrison, and Mrs. Carrison isn't going to be any help until she finally pops."

I groaned. "Whatever. We have to be at hockey practice in fifteen minutes."

She nodded. "Let's go. See you tomorrow," she added to Alex, before following me out of the classroom. We split up once we were in the hall, heading in different directions towards our respective lockers. I tossed my hair over my shoulder as I walked, speeding up as I dodged around a group of football players. They barely noticed me, which I figured was one of the perks of being five feet on a tall day.

I let out a deep breath, followed by a groan as I saw a tall figure moving in my general direction.

Fuck. Like this day hadn't already sucked enough.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the littlest Knight?" James Diamond called to me over the heads of a crowd of sophomores. "How's the view from so close to the ground?"

"How's the view from so close to the ceiling?" I shot back, reaching my locker. I dialed the combination, hoping I could do what I needed to before James arrived, but I knew I was out of luck once my locker door decided that it would be a really awesome idea to jam itself up and torment me. "Come on, you fucking thing," I hissed under my breath. "I will smash you in if you don't open up within the next three seconds."

The door flew open and I jumped back to avoid getting smacked, before stepping forward. James stopped at the locker beside mine, a smirk on his face. His very handsome face, but that was beside the point. He was hot and he knew it. He was tall, probably about 6'1 or 6'2, and muscular, with chestnut brown hair that curled at the tips around his ears and jaw; large hazel eyes that could pierce you clean through with a single look; lips bitten cherry red; cheekbones that looked like they had been sculpted by Michelangelo; and deeply tanned skin that lacked the orange tone of a fake tan. He was dressed simply in perfectly fitted jeans, a black t-shirt that somehow managed to make his eyes smolder even more than usual, and black sneakers. He looked good, but I wasn't about to tell him that. Not when half the high school female population had probably already made sure he knew how hot he was, as if he ever had any doubts.

Nevertheless, I found myself staring up at him as he blinked down at me, long dark lashes brushing against his cheeks, before those cherry red lips pulled up into a smirk. He was so full of himself.

"So, how was your winter break?" James asked me, spinning the combination lock on his own locker which, you know, just happened to be right to mine. The people who had given out locker assignments must have had a vendetta against mine when we received our locker numbers in freshman year, because I had been stuck next to him since my first semester.

I quirked an eyebrow as I yanked textbooks off the shelf and piled them in my messenger bag. "The usual. My dad took Kendall and me to Ski Gull. I learned how to snowboard."

"Cool. Shane and I wanted to hit Ski Gull this year but my mom decided she wanted to go to Cabo instead."

Show off. Just because his mom was Brooke Diamond, the CEO of Brooke Diamond Cosmetics, the number one cosmetics company in the Midwest…

"Oh, you poor thing. Imagine, going to Cabo for winter break. Where are you going to go for spring break? The Italian countryside? The French Riviera?"

One side of his mouth curved up in an amused grin. "We were thinking along the lines of Martha's Vineyard or The Hamptons."

I slammed my locker door shut. "How will you ever survive?" I snapped.

"I might be taking your brother."

"Lucky Kendall."

James smirked again. "Are you jealous?"

"Of?"

"Him getting go to Martha's Vineyard or The Hamptons with me."

"As much as I would love to go to one of those two places, the fact that you'll be there kind of kills the attraction for me."

"See, this is what makes you such a wonderful locker buddy," James said brightly to me. "That sense of humor." He pinched my cheeks and I smacked his hands away.

"Touch my face again and you'll find my tiny Converse sneaker in your very large ass."

He yelped. "My ass is not large! It's perfectly curved and rock hard!" He turned around, wiggling it at me. He was just lucky I couldn't lift my leg that far up without leaning against something. That didn't stop me from raising the notebook I had yet to drop into my bag and slapping it against his right butt cheek.

"Did you just spank me?" he demanded, spinning back around. "Hey, everyone, Katie Knight just – "

I launched myself at him, knocking him to the ground in the process. You would think a six-foot-two, one-hundred-and-seventy -five pound hockey player would be able to catch a ninety-something pound, five foot nothing girl, but oh, no, his strength apparently failed him in the face of a tiny adversary.

He grunted as I landed on top of him and I covered his mouth with my hand. "You finish that sentence and I will knee you some place that's going to hurt a lot. You won't be able to go to hockey practice after that."

He licked at my palm and I instinctively jerked my hand away before he could do much damage.

Gross. James germs.

He smirked. "You going to spank me again?"

"I wouldn't put my notebook through that again. What?" I added when he scowled. "Did you honestly think that I would touch your ass with my hand? Do you know me at all?" I picked myself up off of him and brushed any dirt or James germs off my clothes. James followed my lead, before glancing around. I did too. Half the hall was gawking at us like we were the Super Bowl's halftime show. The other half were whispering to their friends, probably about how we were going to kill each other one of these days.

"What?" James snapped. "Haven't you guys ever seen her tackle me before? It's not exactly an uncommon occurrence."

That part was unfortunately true. I usually ended up tackling him at least once a month, depending on how much of a jerk he was being and how strained my tolerance was.

The students just shook their heads and turned back to their conversations and lockers, probably not even giving James and me a second look. Which was how I liked it.

"Anyway," James turned back to me, pinning me with those damn eyes before I could escape. "Any plans for spring break?"

I yawned boredly. "The invitations to go to Aspen and Hawaii are just coming in so fast that I can't keep up with them. I'll have to get back to you on that."

"Oh, really?" He took a step towards me and I fought back the urge to move back, holding my ground determinedly. "So who's inviting you to Aspen and Hawaii?"

"None of your business," I retorted snippily. "You'll just have to wait to find out until spring break rolls around."

"Maybe you should convince the people inviting you to come to Martha's Vineyard or The Hamptons," he suggested, moving even closer. I still refused to take a step back and instead looked up at him defiantly. "You know, so that you can show me actual proof."

"But that would involve actually having to see you," I whined. "And I don't want to do that over spring break."

"Tell you what," he reached out, trailing his fingers up and down my arm and I fought back a shudder. His hotness was clearly getting to me because my body should not have been reacting like this. "We have a five day weekend next month. I'm sure you'll be getting plenty of invitations to go to different places. You should have them come up with you to my dad's resort."

"And why would I do that?" I queried, reaching up to trace a finger over his collarbone. I was hoping I could throw him off balance as much as he had managed to do to my poor little female insides, and by the way he swallowed, I could tell it worked nicely. "You have to give me some incentive, Jamie, to spend a whole five days in your company."

"My dad's resort has a Jacuzzi, a heated pool, and a sauna, not to mention twenty-four hour room service. And my brother will be there. It's been awhile since you've seen Shane."

"Mmmm.." I made a big production over hemming and hawing about it, before batting my lashes at him. "I'll have to get back to you about that. I might decide to do something else."

"Like go down to Hawaii?"

"It's got sun and warmth."

"You'll probably get sun and warmth at my dad's resort."

"James, it's even farther north than we are."

"Yeah, but we still get sun here, don't we? And you'll get warmth with the sauna, pool, and Jacuzzi."

"I'll get back to you," I repeated, before hitching my messenger bag over my shoulder. "See you later, James." And with that I sauntered off, smirking at the dumbstruck look on his face.

My day was beginning to look like it might be getting better.

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_**So, that was chapter one. I know there's already a lot of OCs, and I'm sorry if all the different characters get confusing. There will probably only be a few main OCs, though, so you guys won't have to wade through two million different unfamiliar characters. Also, I know the first chapter might seem a little slow, but things will be picking up before long :)**_

**_Thank you for taking the time to read this! And if you could take a moment to leave a review and let me know what you think of the story so far, or to ask me a question you might have, I would really appreciate it :)_**


	3. Chapter 2 Wasted Practice

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Big Time Rush.**_

_**Thank you for the reviews and alerts! You guys are amazing! :)**_

_**A/N: Wow, I'm already apologizing for taking forever to update this. I'm so sorry! I got slammed with work, and allergies decided that they needed to attack me, and I just didn't have the energy or motivation to update. I'm sorry about that! Please forgive me?**_

_**Anyway, this is the second chapter. A lot of hockey talk in this, so if I made any mistakes, please let me know! Believe me, I could use the help haha.**_

_**Enjoy the chapter :)**_

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**Chapter Two – Wasted Practice**

**Katie's POV**

"You're in a good mood," Jo Taylor commented when I walked into the girls' locker room two minutes after my conversation with James. It was empty except for the girls' hockey team, which meant that the other teams had either already started practice, or wouldn't be getting practice going for another ten minutes. I had to say, it was a bit of a relief not to have to deal with the cheerleading squad or the drill team.

I shrugged, grinning as I tossed my bag onto the bench in front of my designated locker. "What can I say? First day of winter semester and I've already earned myself a dumbstruck look from James Diamond. What's there not to be happy about?"

"That explains why you no longer look like you're chewing nails," Kristen said to me. "I was wondering if you took a hit of valium or something."

"Nope. It's just natural putting-James-in-his-place cheerfulness."

"Which is really good to hear," Stephanie put in. "Because every time you come in here looking like you're about to punch a brick wall, the rest of us get the brunt of it during hockey practice. And I do not enjoy being checked by you. You may be tiny, but you're forceful."

"You're not even supposed to be body checking us," Mandy reminded me primly. "That's a no-no in women's hockey."

I shrugged. "Until Coach Carter calls me on it, I'm going to continue doing it. I grew up playing hockey with boys and do you think they gave a damn about whether or not they body checked me? Hell no. Anyway, it's not like we don't do it quietly during games. We just make sure the referee and coaches don't see."

"True that," Camille nodded. "And everyone's all, 'oh my gosh, girls are still getting as many injuries as boys'. It's like, um, excuse me, we have periods every month. We can handle a little bit of pain. I don't know why everyone thinks we're so weak."

Kristen shook her head. "Well, we're not going to find out today. Come on, let's finish getting ready for practice before Coach Carter comes in and yells at us for dawdling."

We quickly changed into our hockey uniforms and hurried out onto the ice rink. Our high school had two rinks – one for the boys, one of the girls. That was one of the things I actually liked about this school. It meant that we didn't have to share with the boys' team and we could practice as much as we needed to. It was actually felt – gasp! – fair.

Coach Carter put us through the usual warm up and hockey drills, keeping a stern eye on each player to make sure none of us were misbehaving or slacking on practice. But she didn't need to worry. There weren't any weak links on this team. Most teams had sixteen players and we only had twelve, but we were twelve very determined and dedicated players. A lot of girls at our school winkled their pert little noses at the very idea of playing hockey. As far as they were concerned, it was a man's sport and they couldn't understand why we would want to partake in it. But the girls who came to tryouts were always good and we usually ended up putting each of them on the team. Which, okay, that showed just how few girls showed up at tryouts, but that was beside the point. We trained hard like we were going into war, and we deserved every single battle we won. And Coach Carter knew that. She just didn't want us to get cocky and full of ourselves like some of the guys on the boys' hockey team. But with us constantly being put down for being female hockey players, I seriously doubted that was going to happen.

I grinned to myself a little as I went through one particular drill, winding the puck – and my body – through a maze of orange cones. Once I was through the cone maze I paused, taking a deep breath, before swinging my stick and striking the puck, sending it spinning over the crease and past Alexis even as she tried to block it.

"Nice shot," Coach Carter called to me approvingly and my grin widened proudly as I circled back around to let Camille take her turn going through the cones.

"So," Kristen said when I dropped into line behind her, "any idea what kind of exposé you want to do on the hockey team?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Something quick and simple, I guess. How about you? Any idea how you're going to tackle the basketball and wrestling teams?"

"Don't use _tackle_ and _wrestling team_ in the same sentence," she told me. "And no idea either. I'll probably just wing it."

"Yeah, same."

"Wait, what exposé?" Jo asked, turning around in her place in line. "What are you two talking about?"

I sighed and explained what had gone down in the newspaper meeting.

"Ugh," she wrinkled her nose. "No offense, but I'm so glad I'm not either of you. Especially you, Katie," she added to me. "I would not want to have to interview the boys' hockey team. Have you seen the way some of those players swagger around the school like they own the place? They think they're all that. Well, I got news for them – they're not!"

I blinked. Jo Taylor was one of the most even-tempered, logical people I knew. So for her to be raging on like a lunatic about the boys' hockey team told me something must have happened. "Did one of the guys say something to you?"

"Yes." She stamped her skates on the ice in annoyance. "That complete asshole, Josh Fensen."

"Uh oh. What'd he do?"

"He came up to me in chemistry and was all, _you know, you don't look like a female jock. We should totally go out sometime_."

"Please tell me you slapped him."

"I couldn't," she said glumly. "Mrs. Paulson was looking. But I did tell him that that would only happen when pigs sprouted wings out of their backs and flew to the moon."

I snickered and Kristen and I both high-fived her as best we could with the protective gloves on.

"I bet that wiped that self-satisfied smirk off his face," I said.

"It did, but he'll try again. He always does."

"Very true," I agreed.

"Not all the hockey players are like that," Camille pointed out as she got in line behind me. "Some of them are actually really nice. Take Logan Mitchell for instance. He's such a sweetie."

"He's half nerd. He has to be sweet, otherwise he'll be dog food," I told her.

"But he's also half jock, which means he has some power at this school."

"Yeah, whatever. He's okay. And Kendall's not too bad."

Jo nodded in agreement. "Kendall's good, though he definitely does get a bit of an ego after they win a game. But it usually deflates within a couple of weeks."

"Carlos Garcia is also nice," Kristen said. "And James Diamond has his moments – don't snort," she added to me, clapping her hand over my mouth. "You have to admit, for all you don't like him, he's not a bad guy."

"Which is why he was bragging about how he went to Cabo with his mom for winter break," I retorted.

"Cabo is bragging material. Going with your mom isn't. Give the guy a break, Katie. He's a hockey captain, same as you."

"Leave it alone," Jo advised Kristen. "Katie and James have never gotten along. Even in Kindergarten James was pulling Katie's hair and Katie was kicking him in the shin. We've long since given up on the idea of getting them to reconcile their differences."

"Yeah, it's not going to happen," I announced.

"Definitely not," Natalie said as she got into line as well. "Because you _totally_ didn't tackle James to the ground in the middle of the hall, right?" she smirked at me knowingly.

"Well, duh, of course I did. He was being an ass. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Walk away?" Jo suggested. "Ignore him? Tell him he's a jerk and then not give him a second thought? Pretend he doesn't exist?"

"Or you could make a Voodoo doll in his image and stick it with needles," Camille added in.

I pointed at her. "I like that idea. Now, where can I find supplies to make a Voodoo doll?"

Since Jo's visor was up, I could tell that she was rolling her eyes dramatically. "You would rather stick pins in a damn doll then ignore James?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

"Why do I even bother talking?" she wanted to know.

"I don't know, but you're up."

"What? Oh – " she said as Kristen gave her a little push. She skated forward and Kristen turned back to me.

"You know she's right."

I sniffed. "I know no such thing."

"Yes you do. You know she has a really good point. You and James both put in a lot of energy to antagonize each other. And you two have been especially bad this year, and it's probably only going to get worse with this damn exposé."

"Leave it," Camille said to her. "The way I see it is that they'll either end up killing each other or they'll end up going at it on the rink. Either way, it's entertainment for everyone involved, although I'm totally cool with not seeing one of my best friends do the dirty in the middle of a game."

I threw Camille a nasty look. "I do not want to sleep with James. That would involve touching his unmentionables. I don't even like touching his covered areas, much less – ew." I gave an effected shudder but she didn't look convinced.

"So you don't think he's hot? You wouldn't like to see him naked?"

I made a gagging sound.

"Real mature. I'm serious, Katie, either you two really will end up killing each other or you'll end up in bed for one hell a long weekend. Personally I'm hoping it's the latter, because I'd really like you to live to a ripe old age."

"Aren't you selfless?" I said sweetly as Kristen moved forward to take her turn.

Camille gave me a charming smile. "Well, you know, I try."

I rolled my eyes and instead turned to watch Kristen skate around the cones. Her movements were effortless, almost like she was floating on the ice. She was a right wing and she was built for defense. While she was slender and didn't look like much, she could block better than half the dudes in the NHL. She was going to have one hell of a career one day, no doubt about it. And I couldn't wait to see it.

Kristen took the shot, putting it past Alexis who groaned, shouting playful insults at her. Kristen responded by flipping her the bird behind Coach Carter's back, before skating around to the end of the line.

And then it was my turn again. Alexis left her post behind the crease and skated the puck in my direction. She dropped it in front of me and rushed back to the net. Once she was in position, Coach Carter blew her whistle and I skated forward, sliding the puck along the ice. I zig-zagged through the cones, feeling a little like I was skier going through the drills, and emerged with a swish, before aiming and taking the shot.

It swooshed into the net, Alexis barely having time to react.

"Oh, come on!" she cried, stomping her foot. "You could give a girl a warning!"

I lifted my visor so that she would feel the full impact of my triumphant smirk. "But where's the fun in that, Lexi?"

"Screw you, Knight," she shot back, but she was laughing.

"Right back atcha, Damon."

"Okay you two, break it up," Coach Carter intervened, skating between us as if she thought she was preventing us from throwing down. Man, was she off. Alexis was generally too good natured and sweet to throw down with anyone, while I generally reserved my fights for certain hot jerky boys. Like, say, James Diamond. Who just happened to be walking into the rink at that very moment.

Why was James Diamond walking into the rink at that very moment?

And why was half the boys' hockey team, along with their coach, trailing right behind him?

"Uh, Coach?" I pointed in their direction and she whipped around, before glowering. The boys' and girls' hockey teams weren't the only ones with a standing rivalry. Coach Carter and Coach Benson also had a longstanding rivalry that was probably a lot deeper than anything any of us could come up with. The rumor was that back in the day they had been the captains of the boys' and girls' hockey teams and they had dated. It had been a steamy, love struck, passionate affair that had ended tragically. Well, maybe not tragically. It wasn't_ Romeo and Juliet_. No one died in the midst of their relationship and breakup. But it did end badly, and when they both ended up coaching the teams they had once captained, the regret, spite, and hatred surfaced once more and now…well…now they were mortal enemies in only the way that people who once had hot, steamy, filthy sex could be.

I was so happy James and I hated each other too much to ever have hot, steamy, filthy sex of any kind, no matter what Camille said. She was wrong, I was right, it was written in the stars, so there.

Coach Carter's eyes narrowed and she marched over to Coach Benson. Feeling that it was my sacred duty as team captain to keep her from committing murder, I followed, skating off the ice and waddling along after her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Coach Carter demanded of Coach Benson, who had adapted a resigned look on his face now that he had realized that – hey! – he was going to have to deal with his ex.

Awk-ward.

Coach Benson sighed. "I've split the guys up into two teams so that they can run drills a little more efficiently, but I need the rink for about fifteen minutes or so. Just so that this half of the team can run through the drills a few times."

My jaw dropped. He had to be kidding us. He had asked to use the rink for drills a couple of times the semester before, and the semester before that, and basically every few months ever since my freshman year of school, probably even before that. But he had never approached Coach Carter about it on the first day of a semester. Even _he_ was smart enough not to do that. Yet here he was, wanting to use the rink on the first day back at school like he thought he had more right to it than we did. But maybe that was just my imagination and my annoyance at the amused look on James' face.

Coach Carter narrowed her eyes but nodded her head nevertheless. "Fine. You have fifteen minutes. The girls can observe so they can critique the boys' techniques and maybe get a better idea of what they need to do. Even though they're doing wonderful already," she added with a proud sniff, nose in the air.

James rolled his eyes, mockingly mouthing "even though they're doing wonderful already", and I smirked at him.

"You have a problem, James?"

"Not at all," he retorted. "Why would I have a problem? I'm the one commandeering the ice rink for the next fifteen minutes."

I grunted in response, clenching my fists. If I hadn't been wearing gloves my nails would have dug into my palm, but instead all I could feel were the finger pads against my skin.

"Katie, come on," Coach Carter said, resting her hand on my shoulder. "Let's get the other girls off the ice and we'll go into the bleachers to watch practice. And by the way," she added in a low voice as we stepped back onto the ice, "make sure you critique the boys very loudly so that they can hear. It'll wipe the smirks off their faces."

I grinned. "We can definitely do that. We'll be so loud they'll be able to hear us in Wisconsin."

"Good," she said in satisfaction, before blowing her whistle. "Okay, everyone!" she hollered. "Half of the boys' hockey team is taking over the ice to run some drills for about fifteen minutes or so, so we're going to go sit in the bleachers. We're going to take note of the mistakes they make so that you girls don't make them in turn."

"And by all means, comment loudly," I added in an undertone to the girls as we filed up into the bleachers, spreading out leisurely and staring unblinkingly down at the ice as the boys skated onto the rink, whooping and hollering and flashing smirks up at us. Carlos shook his head, and James said something to Josh Fensen, who glowered but stopped making obscene faces at Jo.

"Come on," I heard James say distinctly. "Let's just run the drills and don't pay any attention to the girls. We're here for practice, not to torment them."

"Like you don't want to torment Katie," Josh snapped at him.

"It's like James said, we're here to run drills," Carlos said mildly. "So shut up, Josh."

Jo and I both smirked at the furious look on Josh's face, but we didn't say anything.

The guys set up, taking turns with running a couple of drills. We watched, occasionally critiquing their form or technique loud enough for our voices to carry down to them. When I made a comment about the way James was taking aim before hitting the puck, he glared up at me. I had pulled my glove off by this point, and I waggled my fingers sweetly at him.

The boys' team didn't practice for fifteen minutes. They practiced for almost half an hour, which took up a quarter of _our_ time. Talk about rude.

Coach Carter finally kicked them off the rink, yelling at them to go practice on their own rink and stop wasting our own practice time, before gesturing us back onto the ice.

The rest of practice was rough, with every single one of us irritated and distracted from the boys' interruption. Even Coach Carter didn't seem to be focusing very well, and by the time five-o-clock rolled around, we were sweaty, hungry, and as frustrated as a cat thrown into a swimming pool. We trooped back into the girls' locker room, where we changed into our street clothes, adding a few layers that we hadn't worn during school hours. We kept extra clothes in our bags, and we were going to have to stop by our lockers to grab our snow boots and winter coats.

"I can't believe our practice was ruined by the boys," Natalie commented as she zipped up her hoodie and tossed her dark brown hair over her shoulders. "Did you see the way some of them were smirking about this?"

"But James and Carlos put them in their place," Brittany replied. "So it could have been worse. At least we didn't have to deal with them trying to get in our pants, unless you count Josh trying to get the air to give him a blow job."

"Which you really can't count," Jo said through gritted teeth.

Mandy smirked at her. "You didn't enjoy Josh's little show? I know I was entertained by it."

Allison grinned. "I liked the orgasm faces he was making before James told him to knock it off."

"Those were orgasm faces?" I raised an eyebrow. "I thought he had pulled a muscle." I pulled my shirt on and straightened it out. "Well, I'm out. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"I'll walk out with you," Alexis volunteered.

"Come on." We walked out of the locker room and down the hall.

"So, you and James got paired together in biology?" Alexis asked me as we made our way towards our lockers.

"Sadly, yes. Luckily today we were just going over the syllabus, but we're going to have to dissect worms and frogs. I just know he's going to end up throwing a frog heart at me."

Alexis chuckled. "I doubt it'll be that bad. And isn't Kendall and Jo in that class as well?"

I nodded. "They got partnered together. That's going to be fun to watch. Kendall gets squeamish and Jo is really no-nonsense about that kind of stuff."

She grinned. "Get me a video of that, would you?"

"I'll see what I can do." We had reached my locker, so I stopped, letting Alexis know that I'd see her tomorrow. She headed off, and I opened my locker, this time without any trouble. I replaced my Converse sneakers with snow boots, forcing the shoes into my messenger bag, before pulling on my hoodie, coat, gloves, scarf, and hat. I managed to dig my car keys out from the front pocket of my messenger bag and headed out of the school, making my way towards my car.

Even though Kendall and I were twins and in the same grade, our parents agreed that we each needed a car since we were on slightly different schedules. The girls' hockey practice often ended at a different time then the boys', and there were the occasional days when one of us wouldn't have practice at all. So our parents' solution had been to let us have their old cars while they upgraded to the latest models. Kendall and I both complained about having to drive the reject parent cars, but in all honesty we knew it could be a lot worse. Half the kids in our class didn't even have a car. Hell, half the kids in the senior year didn't have a car. They were forced to either catch rides with their parents, car pool with their friends, or deal with the school bus.

Not exactly glamorous options.

I found my Toyota Camry right where I had left it and clicked the button to unlock it, before setting my bag in the backseat and climbing into the front, closing the door behind me and sticking the keys into the ignition. I waited until the car was completely warmed up before backing carefully out of the parking spot and switching on the heat. It hadn't snowed for a few days, so while the yards were blanketed in a soft layer, the roads were pretty clear. That being said, it was supposed to snow again by Friday so I was sure that before long the roads would be covered once more.

I drove home, blasting the local pop and rock station as I did so, belting out the lyrics to a Kelly Clarkson song.

I pulled through the driveway into the garage and parked beside Kendall's Honda Civic, shutting off the ignition. I clambered out and snatched up my messenger bag, before closing the garage door and pushing in through the door leading to the house. I stepped into the mudroom, shivering now that I was in the warm air, like my body was suffering from the cold's aftershock.

I began to peel off the layers, hanging my coat, scarf, hat, and gloves up on the coat racks, before kicking off my boots and heading into the kitchen.

My mom was standing at the stove, checking on what a huge pot simmering on the stove.

"Hi, sweetie," she greeted me as she stirred whatever was in the pot.

"Hey." I sniffed the air, my nose defrosting after the ten seconds of standing in freezing air. Ooh, vegetable ham soup. My mom made a huge pot of it every couple of weeks in the winter and I could never get tired of it. It was like a party in my mouth, with rich ham broth, tender pieces of ham, and perfectly stewed vegetables. Add a generous helping of salt and pepper and it was heaven in food form.

"How was school?" she asked me, watching as I unzipped my hoodie and pulled my hair out of its ponytail, fluffing it down over my collar.

"Oh, you know, the usual. I have to do an exposé on the boys' hockey team, while the guys assigned to cover the girls' sports teams don't have to."

"Is it just for the boys' hockey team?" Mom asked, furrowing her brow.

"It's for the boys' soccer, basketball, and wrestling teams," I answered. "Nothing for the girls. Well, we may get an exposé if we have an unfilled spot in the school newspaper."

"That's not right," she stated, stirring the soup as I walked around her to help myself to a banana. "If the boys' teams are getting a huge article, then the girls' teams should as well."

"I know. But Missy Carlyle thinks that the boys' teams will garner more interest."

"Will they?"

I shrugged, peeling my banana. "Probably. That doesn't make it fair."

"No, it doesn't. In fact, it probably makes it even less fair."

I took a bite, hopping up onto the counter and swinging my legs. "And you know what happened in hockey practice today? Coach Benson came in with half the boys' hockey team and wanted to know if they could run drills on the ice for about fifteen minutes. They stayed for a half hour, and they would've been even longer if Coach Carter hadn't finally told them to stop wasting our time and let us get back to practice."

Mom's jaw dropped as she stared at me. "Are you kidding me? That is so rude and disrespectful. Why couldn't Benson have just run drills with that half of the team on their rink?"

I shrugged. "No idea. I guess he didn't want to disrupt their practice."

"And yet he was okay with disrupting your practice? And on the first day of the winter semester? This is the middle of hockey season. You guys need as much practice as you can possibly get."

"I know," I said dryly. "Believe me, I'm not happy about this. And we were all so ticked off that we couldn't concentrate. And Josh Fensen was making obscene faces at Jo."

"Why?"

"Because he wants in her pants. He would have kept at it but James Diamond told him to knock it off and focus on practice."

"Good for him. Oh, Kendall."

I looked towards the entrance to the kitchen and sure enough, Kendall was walking in, looking freshly showered and wearing sweats and a t-shirt.

"Hey, Katie," he greeted me. "Sorry about having to interrupt hockey practice today."

"I was just telling Mom about that," I replied. "And why are you sorry? You weren't one of the hockey players who kicked us off the ice for a half hour."

He shrugged. "What Coach Benson did was really shitty – sorry, Mom."

"Language," she warned, pointing the spoon at him.

"Which is why I said _sorry_. But it's true. He shouldn't have done that, especially on the first day back. I think he and Coach Carter saw each other over break and he felt the need to irritate her or something. Rub her nose in it. I don't know."

"What makes you think he and Coach Carter had anything to do with each other over break?" I asked.

Kendall shrugged. "Just stuff he said."

"Like?"

"I don't know, I don't have it memorized word for word."

"Try."

"He insinuated that he and Coach Carter hooked up at some point over winter break."

I rolled my eyes. "Wow, he couldn't keep that to himself?"

"He insinuated it, he didn't say it straight out."

"Same difference. I'm going to go take a shower and change." I finished off my banana and chucked the peel into the trashcan before sliding down from the counter and heading for the stairs.

It had definitely not been a good day for guys to prove themselves.

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_**So...that was chapter two. What'd you guys think? Was it okay? Was it any good? Did it suck? Actually, don't tell me if it sucked, because that would suck hearing it. Thank you for reading, and please review! :)**_


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